Conventionally, confirmation of the location of a recording point on a photosensitive film in reproducing images has been carried out by first detecting the position of a recording head from the recording start or stop point and then by indicationg the point by means of an external displaying device such as LEDs. However, the indication provides only the subscanning direction factor of the photosensitive film. In other words, such an indication is not capable of indentifying the main scanning direction factor.
Furthermore, in order to increase use efficiency of a color scanner and consequently to curtail the consumption of photosensitive films, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 337,448, now abandoned discloses a method, by which four color separations Y (Yellow), M (Magenta), C (Cyan) and K (Black) of each of a number of originals are recorded onto respective one-fourth areas of one track of a photosensitive film as shown in FIG. 9(a). Even in this case, confirmation of the recording point on the photosensitive film is carried out only by detecting the sub-scanning position of a recording head.
However recently it is desired to record the color separations Y, M, C and K of an original onto a photosensitive film sequentially in the main scanning direction as shown in FIG. 9(b)-I, in a matrix as shown in FIG. 9(b)-II, or sequentially in the sub-scanning direction as shown in FIG. 9(b)-III in order to make efficient use of a photosensitive film of large size.
This kind of recording cannot be achieved by means of said conventional method of detecting the position of the recording head only of the sub-scanning direction factor, because the method is incapable of confirming the unexposed area of the photosensitive film of the main scanning direction factor, which fact raises the possibility of multiple exposure.
Even in a color layout scanner which carries out practically all the processes of color separation, color correction, magnification conversion, tint laying, retouching, editing and so forth necessary for electronic color image reproduction, the positions at which color separations are to be recorded are determined by using a position designation means such as a digitizer and a display means such as a CRT display in the allocation process as well as in the present invention. However, in the conventional method it has not been suggested that four color separations of each of a plurality of originals may be recorded onto a photosensitive film of large size efficiently as disclosed in the present invention.
A photosensitive film of large size is also destined to carry a lot of color separations, therefore, efficiency of use of the photosensitive film cannot be increased without any precise allocation control.
In reflection to the above conventional problems, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 625,782 discloses a method by which data of scanning start and stop points of an original, and data of recording start and stop points of color separations, Y, M, C and K thereof, determined by an operator's designation by means of a digitizer and a CRT display monitor, are stored in an external memory such as a disk memory, and are successively called up to an internal memory of a CPU as well as to a magnification ratio setter to control a recording process.
The above-mentioned method is advanced in terms of making efficient use of a photosensitive film. However, since the recording start points are determined by human perception, the gap width between the designated area to be allocated and the adjacent previously allocated area tends to be too wide.